Unfortunately, for victims of the Equifax data breach, the risk of financial and personal injury, including identity theft, persists indefinitely.

When a credit card is stolen, the account may be cancelled or the numbers changed. But when core personal data — such as social insurance numbers, birth names, and dates of birth — is stolen, there are no accounts to cancel or numbers to change.Once hackers gain access to these key pieces of personal data — which is akin to the DNA of a person’s online digital self — the data is at the cyber thieves’ permanent disposal to cause harm.